MAHLER 7
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (6 January 2018 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 January 2017 with the title "Myriad emotions felt in one symphony".
Concerts
featuring a single symphony as the only work are now becoming more common with
the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. This is especially so when programming
symphonies by Gustav Mahler as more than half of his ten symphonies run in
excess of 75 minutes. The Austrian composer once proclaimed, “A symphony is
like a world, it must embrace everything,” and so it was with SSO's fourth performance
of his Seventh Symphony.
Considered
the most enigmatic and least accessible symphony of the canon, the Seventh
is also the most problematic in terms of interpretation. Its sheer profusion of
themes, ideas, emotions, moods, philosophies and instrumental quirks often
leave listener confused as to the composer's thoughts and intentions. Unlike
his symphonies which end with tragedy (No.6), resignation (No.9),
bliss (No.4), or triumph (most of the others), the messages sent in the
five movements of the Seventh can be seen as mixed or equivocal.
Music
Director Shui Lan's vision seemed to to follow Mahler's famous dictum, that is
to be all-encompassing. The lugubrious 1st movement opened unusually with the
call of the tenor horn, here heard on Marques Young's euphonium, with the pace
being a funereal trudge. That was contrasted with a lyrical and yearning second
theme first heard on the strings, with the transitions in between being most
subtly handled.
Even
the first big orchestral climax was patiently built up, and it crept up almost
surreptitiously. This made the next climax seem all the more mighty, and more
vehement. That surely is the art of interpreting, following close scrutiny and
study of the score's architecture, not merely notes and notations.
 |
| Percussion principal Jonathan Fox tending to the slung cow-bells. |
The
three central movements were also unusual as it included two designated as Nachtmusik
(Night Music) with a Scherzo filled with dark, hissing
grotesquerie in between. Here Mahler's peculiar scoring included slung
cowbells, mandolin and guitar, besides a battery of assorted percussion, almost
the proverbial kitchen sink.
More
importantly, the performance brought out the vulgar, homespun country
inspiration of the 2nd movement and the sickly sweet sentimentality
of the 4th movement. The intervening Scherzo abounded with
spectral sound effects, nocturnal noises, which just about disguised a
parodistic waltz, arguably Mahler's weirdest symphonic movement.
All
these earthy qualities, typical of and true to the composer's checkered life
experiences, were thrown into this mix.
Outstanding were the solo contributions of French horn principals Jakob Keiding
(guesting for the indisposed Han Chang Chou) and Jamie Hersch, trumpet
principal Jon Dante, and the brass and woodwind sections as a whole.
The
finale, combining Rondo and sonata form in a single movement, provided
the symphony the levity it cried out for. To this end, Shui and his charges
delivered with briskness and much
aplomb. Its secondary themes were tossed around with playful and almost
whimsical abandon before a drive to the symphony's thrilling close. It was a
way of saying, “Life's a pain, but have fun anyway”.
 |
| With a wave of the hand, Music Director Shui Lan bids farewell. |
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